Tel: 5432 2236 Email:
[email protected]
Website: www.goornongps.vic.edu.au
Weekly Awards
Term Four
Thurs 12th Nov Little Learners Session One
Fri 13th Nov School Photos
MARC Library
School Council Meeting
Wed 18th Nov Cluster Summer Sports, Gr 3-6.
Fri 20th Nov Student-Free Day
Thurs 26th Nov Little Learners Session Three
Grade Prep-Two Sleepover at School
Fri 27th Nov MARC Library
Tues 8th Dec State-wide Orientation (Step-Up) Day
Fri 11th Dec MARC Library
Fri 18th Dec Last day of Term 4, 2.15pm dismissal
2021 Term Dates
Friday 30th October 2020
BOOK WEEK 2020 Our Book Week dress-up day is
Friday 6th November On this day students are encouraged to dress up
in a
costume related to this year’s theme—
Curious Creatures, Wild Minds. We will be doing a parade along the
new footpath on
Grant and Landon Streets at 9am. Thus, we encour-
age parents to park their cars along these streets to
watch as we go past (please see Principal’s Report
for more details on this).
Award This Week Last Week
P-2 Literacy
3-6 Maths
3-6 Values
BOOK WEEK DRESS UP DAY
Our Book Week Dress Up Day is just one week away and
it has been great to hear the excitement building
amongst the students as they look forward to donning
their Book Week Costumes.
strictions, we are unable to do this.
Therefor, as a staff we have come up with a modified
plan to involve parents in Book Week this year.
The students will be parading along the new footpath
along Grant and Langdon Streets at 9am. We invite par-
ents to park their cars along these streets to watch as we
walk past. For this plan to be successful, we are asking for
parent cooperation to ensure Covid-19 guidelines are
met. This includes:
Parents staying in their cars; or, if hopping out, stand-
ing at the bonnet of their car.
Parents staying at least 1.5m from the new footpath.
Parents avoiding gathering in groups.
Parents maintaining at least 1.5m from the school
group during the parade.
Parents that are not inside a vehicle to be wearing a
mask.
We will reserve an area near the front entrance for
parents who walk with their child to school to stand.
We appreciate the support of parents and our school
community in respecting the above arrangements, as this
ensures that we are able to offer this opportunity to our
students and families.
DRINK BOTTLES
We have a number of students who are coming to school
without a drink bottle. We remind parents (and students)
that a drink bottle full of water should be brought to
school every day. This is particularly important at present
given the bubble taps are currently out of order due to
Covid-19 restrictions.
SCHOOL REVIEW
After a couple of false starts due to coronavirus our
school review has finally got underway and this week we
welcomed our reviewer, senior education improvement
leader and challenge partners into our school. This
‘Review Team’ has spent time working with the school
Principal’s Report staff on identifying the successes and
achievements of
our school over the past four years; and identifying the
next steps which will guide the development of our
School Strategic Plan for the coming four years. The Re-
view Team has also spent time talking with students and
parents to find out more about our school. Following the
conclusion of the review next week, a report and presen-
tation will be made to our school council and the devel-
opment of our 2021-2024 Strategic Plan will commence.
I look forward to updating our community on the out-
comes of the Review later in the year.
As was outlined in the newsletter earlier this year, all
Government schools go through a school review process
every four years to evaluate how effective they have
been in achieving the goals set out in their Strategic Plan;
and to develop goals for the coming four years.
GRADE PREP-TWO SLEEPOVER
Both Miss Mac and I are excited to announce that later
this year we will be running a Grade Prep-Two Sleepover
at school. This will be held on the evening of Thursday
26th November. On this evening Grade One-Two stu-
dents will be invited to sleepover at school, while Grade
Prep students would head home after participating in
some activities at school. More information will come in
the next edition of the newsletter, but a plan for the
night would be something like below:
Thursday 26th November
Attend school as per normal during the day and go home
at 3.15pm.
Games and activities at school.
6.00pm Dinner at school.
8.00pm Grade Prep students go home.
Grade 1/2s watch a movie at school
9.00pm Grade 1/2s bedtime.
school.
attend school on the Friday. However, par
ents may wish to collect their child in the
morning and take them home.
(continued over page).
We are pleased to announce that school photos will be
going ahead in 2020. Our school photo day is Friday 13th
November.
This year, school council has decided to make an alterna-
tive arrangement for our school photos. In recognition of
the challenging year that many have faced, there will be
no cost to families for this year’s photos, as school coun-
cil will be covering the cost. The photos will be taken by
Felicity Johnson, who is a staff member of our school and
also an amateur photographer. Many in our community
would be familiar with the quality of Felicity’s photog-
raphy.
Instead of ordering photo packs like usual, each family
will be provided with a USB stick containing a class photo,
two individual student portraits and a family portrait
(siblings only). Families will then be able to print these
photos at a photo kiosk in the quantity and size they
wish.
School photo day is always a very special day in our cal-
endar, with the photos taken on the day providing fami-
lies with memories that can be passed on to future gen-
erations. In the past, our families have been very good at
ensuring that students attend school in correct school
uniform on photo day. Again, we ask for the support of
parents with this to ensure that our photos are of the
highest quality. In particular, I draw parents attention to
the following points in our uniform policy:
Stud earrings and sleepers worn in the ears, plus
watches are the only acceptable jewellery.
Other than clear nail polish, cosmetics may not be
worn at school.
ful long-sleeve shirts under a short-sleeve shirt or leg-
gings/tights under shorts, skirts or dresses is not per-
mitted, with the exception of those in the colours navy
blue or maroon.
and/or extreme hairstyles are not permitted.
Shoulder length hair or longer needs to be tied back.
SCHOOL COUNCIL
Our final school council meeting for 2020 will be held on
Monday 16th November 7.00pm. Finance Committee will
meet at 6.30pm. As has been the case previously, this
meeting will be held remotely via WebEx videoconferenc-
ing.
Thank you to those parents who have already taken the
time to complete the Parent Opinion Survey. This year
the survey is being conducted online. A notification has
been sent to each family via UEducateUs which includes
the survey link and unique survey login code.
Each year our school conducts a survey of families as one
of multiple sources of feedback that our school uses to
direct future planning and school improvement.
Please feel free to contact me at the school if you have
any trouble accessing or completing the survey.
2021 SCHOOL YEAR
We have begun planning for the 2021 school year. As I’m
sure you can appreciate, there is a great deal of work
behind the scenes to ensure the best structure in rela-
tion to classrooms, teachers and support staff. The num-
ber of students attending the school has a significant
impact on our planning as school funding is directly
linked to the number of enrolments. As such, I ask that
those parents intending to enrol new students at Goor-
nong PS in 2021 (including Preps) please now return
their enrolment form. Enrolment forms are available
from the school should you require one. I also ask that
parents please contact me if they are not intending to
send their child to Goornong PS in 2021. I thank families
for their support with this.
Jason Cox
maybe staff) feeling fairly tired the last couple of weeks,
the students have returned this term with a positive
attitude towards each other and their learning.
During Literacy, we have been looking at summarising
(giving a short sequenced recount of the main ideas in
our own words). We have also looked at characters,
settings, problems, events and solutions which has tied
in nicely with our writing unit on personal narratives. It
has been entertaining to hear all the students brain-
storm some very interesting events in their life. We
have used these to create our story plans and are excit-
ed to start writing our stories next week. Each student
has also got a new reading and writing goal focusing on
the next step in their learning. Students have collabo-
rated with Ms Mac to create these goals and have been
working hard to bump up their skills.
In Maths, we have been focusing on division. We have
talked about the connection between division and mul-
tiplication and different strategies we can use. Preps
have enjoyed sharing objects between groups equally
and Grade 1/2 have used objects, pictures and arrays to
solve division sums.
Over the next fortnight we will finish our personal nar-
ratives. Then, students will write a persuasive piece of
writing trying to convince their audience about some-
thing they would like in their home towns. In Maths,
students will continue to work on division (sharing) and
start looking at multiplication (groups of).
In STEM, Mr Tooley and students were very excited to
go on an zoo excursion in the yard and then write about
their experience.
In ICT, Mrs Patton has had the students practise finding
letters quickly on the keyboard and spelling out their
spelling words or sight words.
Eddie, Lexi, Emilie, Lola, Mary, Marli and Mrs Patton in ICT.
GRADE THREE-SIX
In Reading, the students have been learning about ‘Point of View’
(POV). Who is telling the story? The stu- dents have focused on
devel- oping their understanding of first, second and third person
point of view and how telling the story from different perspectives
can change how we feel about characters, the setting, and the plot!
The students have used images to practise this concept by telling a
story about the image from both first and third person POV! All
students have been working hard in class during independent reading
times to master their reading goal. I highly recom- mend that grade
3-6 students spend 10mins each night reading at home too, to
strengthen their reading stamina, skills and independence. Even if
they are reading to themselves before bed!
In Writing, the students have begun to plan their au- tobiography!
They have learnt about the differences and similarities of a
biography and an autobiography, and have enjoyed reading an amazing
selection of texts chosen by Mrs G to understand the genre bet-
ter! The students are moving through the writing pro- cess. After
their ‘Prewrite’ they will then move into writing the ‘Draft’. Many
thanks to those who helped their child plan for this writing
piece!
In Maths, the Grade Three-Fours have begun a new unit on ‘Time’.
The students have completed a pre-test and are now working through
reading an analogue clock and transferring the analogue time to
digital too. This week, we have practised lots of quarter past and
quar- ter to times, and are working towards reading the time to the
minute.
In Maths the Grade Five-Sixes have been practicing mental and
written strategies for multiplication. The students have looked at
multiplication in terms of ar- rays with equal rows and columns;
and as the area of a square or rectangle. The students have also
learnt about partitioning as a strategy to solve multiplication and
have learnt how to set this strategy up in a grid.
Community News
The Betrayal of Trust report released by the Victorian
Government identified that more can be done in the
community to reduce and remove the risk of child
abuse. As such, Ministerial Order 870 outlines a set of
requirements (Child Safe Standards) that Victorian
schools need to meet.
The Child Safe Standards are a set of principles that
require organisations working with children to imple-
ment strategies to prevent child abuse.
There are seven Child Safe Standards, plus a Principle
of Inclusion.
Goornong Primary School is committed to the safety
and wellbeing of all children and young people. This will
be the primary focus of our care and decision-making.
Goornong Primary School has zero tolerance for child
abuse.
affect their lives. Particular attention will be paid to the
cultural safety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
children and children from culturally and/or linguistically
diverse backgrounds, as well as the safety of children
with a disability and children who are vulnerable.
Every person involved in Goornong Primary School has
a responsibility to understand the important and specific
role they play individually and collectively to ensure that
the wellbeing and safety of all children and young peo-
ple is at the forefront of all they do and every decision
they make.
policies and documents which outline approaches to
remove and/or reduce the risks of child abuse; and
our commitment to providing a child-safe environment.
Child Safety Policy.
Risk Management Strategies for a Child Safe Envi-
ronment.
A copy of all of these policies and further information
regarding the Child Safe Standards is available on our
school’s website.
Nomination Form
Nominations are now being sought for the AFL Central Victoria
Netball
Academy. Nominate for trials by completing the form on the
following
link: https://forms.gle/rYuAwQbhao5DQyB88
In 2021, we will be running the following programs:
• A specialist program for 14-year-old players in shooting, centre
court
or defence. Players select their specialty area with sessions
conducted
concurrently
Ages are taken at 31st December 2021:
• Players turning 14 in 2021 (DOB 2007) will be considered for the
14-
Year-Old Program
• Players turning 13 in 2021 (DOB 2008) will be considered for the
13-
Year-Old Program
• Players turning 12 in 2021 (DOB 2009) will be considered for the
12-
Year-Old Program
Trial Information
We will confirm trials at a later stage using the email address
provided in
the nomination process. Depending on COVID-19 restrictions they
will
either be early December 2020 or February 2021.
It is recommended that players attend a minimum of two
trials.
Please email Carol Cathcart,
[email protected],
if you
have any further questions.
it is timely to remind parents of the following important
points regarding how any potential Covid-19 cases
would be managed in the school context.
The Department of Education and Training (DET) has
comprehensive procedures in place with the Depart-
ment of Health and Human Services to manage sus-
pected or confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19)
in schools.
activate the established procedures if a student or
staff member:
DHHS defines ‘close contact’ as someone who has
either:
with a confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19).
shared a closed space for more than two hours
with someone who is a confirmed case.
Anyone who is, or who has come into contact with, a
confirmed case of coronavirus (COVID-19) is required
to self-quarantine for a period of 14 days.
All unwell staff and students must stay home.
Staff or students experiencing compatible symptoms
with coronavirus (COVID-19) (fever, cough or sore
throat) whilst at school will be isolated in an appropri-
ate space with suitable supervision and their parent/
carer contacted to come and collect them as soon as
possible.
school, regardless of whether their symptoms are
compatible with Covid-19 or not. Students who are
unwell must not return to school until their symp-
toms have ceased. If students begin to feel ill whilst
at school we will contact their parents and ask that
the child be collected as soon as possible. We con-
tinue to encourage parents to seek the advice of
their medical practitioner should their child display
any symptoms compatible with Covid-19.
We draw parents’ attention to the Australian Gov-
ernment Health Department website which has the
following information regarding Covid-19 symptoms:
We thank everyone in our school community for
their vigilance and support in helping to keep our
students and staff safe and healthy. It continues to
be important that our community remains attentive
to this.
ly, and others may get very sick very quickly. Peo-
ple with coronavirus may experience symptoms
such as:
throat and/or shortness of breath.
Other symptoms can include runny nose, head-
ache, muscle or joint pains, nausea, diarrhoea,
vomiting, loss of sense of smell, altered sense of
taste, loss of appetite and fatigue.
To stop the spread of COVID-19 people with even
mild symptoms of respiratory infection should get
tested.
WHEN IS MY CHILD OK TO COME TO SCHOOL?
The circumstances where students are not to attend school are
when:
1) They are a confirmed Covid-19 case.
2) They are a close contact of a confirmed case.
3) They have been directed to self-isolate by DHHS.
4) They are unwell.
If your children fits into any of the categories above, they should
not attend school. Otherwise, they would be right to come.
